Congress-Trinamool Congress tussle a 'family feud': CPI(M)

NEW DELHI: CPI(M) today said the tussle between Trinamool Congress and Congress in West Bengal was "a family feud" and accused Mamata Banerjee's party of trying to "have the cake and eat it too".

"It is a family feud. But the pitch has gone so shrill that it has become difficult for even the neighbours to live," senior CPI(M) leader Surjya Kanta Mishra told reporters on the sidelines of CPI(M) Central Committee meeting here.

He said Trinamool Congress was earlier launching attacks only on CPI(M) but now it is attacking Congress too. "She (Banerjee) attacks Congress but the party has so many ministers in Delhi (at the Centre). ... She wants to have the cake and eat it too."

The comments of Mishra, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal, came soon after Banerjee said in Kolkata that her party would remain in UPA as long as it received respect but will go it alone in West Bengal where Congress is an ally.

Regarding Banerjee's call for taking the protest against the Centre's alleged neglect of West Bengal to Delhi, the CPI(M) leader said Left parties had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several months ago and sought an entire package for the state.

"Our opposition is not just for opposition's sake", he added.

Referring to the West Bengal Chief Minister's announcement that panchayat polls could be held after the Durga Puja in October, Mishra said the panchayats should complete their entire tenure till May next year and the elections should be held only then.

"If they advance the panchayat polls, they will have to dismiss these duly-elected panchayats. They have an expertise in breaking democratic institutions," he said.

On Trinamool's decision to withdraw all its 17 candidates from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) election, the CPI(M) leader said she has "done it in the name of democracy. If this is democracy, then we don't agree."